The history of the United States is, typically, told in the accomplishments of the iconic greats: George Washington. Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King.

But have you ever heard of Theodore Judah? Thomas MacDonald? Morris Llewellyn Cooke?

They, too, were greats, argues bestselling author Simon Winchester. They did great things for the United States, but they’re largely forgotten. They did things like build the transcontinental railroad, wire rural America for electricity, and create the interstate highway system.

Now Winchester gives new and long-deserved attention to these forgotten heroes of his adopted homeland, in his book “The Men Who United The States.”

How do you choose the very best American poetry of the entire twentieth century? Well, you start by giving the task to one of America’s most acclaimed poets, Pulitzer Prize-winning former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. She is editor of the newly-published book “The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry”

And in one, 656-page volume, Dove has indeed brought together the famous, the less-famous, the legendary and the irreplaceable writers whose work defined the twentieth century in poetry.

From T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams to John Ashbery and Elizabeth Alexander, 180 poets in all populate this anthology that Dove spent four years assembling.

Listen to Rita Dove

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Don’t see a player here? Click on this link to listen, or right click and “Save As” to download.